EDITED

"Clary?" Jocelyn knocked on her door but didn't open it before Clary answered. Clary was still surprised that her mother was around, it had been almost a whole week now and she was still there, but she hadn't really spoken to her much, spending most of her time in her room.

"Yeah?" Clary turned her head on her pillow and looked toward the door but didn't get up. The door opened and Jocelyn popped her head in. It was obvious she wanted to say something, from the way she glanced around the room, but she just pushed the door further open and Simon and Kaelie walked through.

"I'll leave you kids to it," Jocelyn gave them a quick smile, hesitating in the doorway as though waiting for something, but when no one spoke, she left, closing the door behind her. Kaelie wrinkled her nose and tugged at her long hair before coming over and sitting down on the bed.

"It's weird—your mum being home," she pointed out.

"I know," Clary shrugged. "I don't what she's still doing around." It was Friday night, and a couple of months ago, she would have been out with Jordan or Kaelie and probably Lydia, and then in the past few months, she had been hanging out a lot with Jace and Maia and Magnus. But tonight, she had just come home after school, showered and then fallen onto her bed and turned on the television.

Pretty much all she had done this week.

The only change in her routine had been the cheerleading practice on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, where she had actually had a pretty good time with Kaelie, Aline, Helen and Lindsey, and Lydia had barely talked to any of them, and even when she had, it had been in a off-handed kind of way.

"We wanted to come over and check on you," Simon said bluntly. Clary raised an eyebrow and glanced between the two of them, because they had never really gotten on all that well. It wasn't that they hated each other or anything, but they had never come together without Clary physically there to pull toward one another.

Although, in a way, she knew she had still done that, even if it wasn't physically.

"Um," Clary let out a breath that was surprisingly shaky and she felt tears spring to her eyes. It was fucking stupid, and she hated how emotional she seemed to have gotten in these past few months. She never used to be like this—she would get angry and frustrated and annoyed but she never really got upset or anxious, and now it felt as though that was all she was feeling, even though she knew that was a bit of an exageration. "Okay," Clary shuffled back on her bed, toward the middle, and grabbed at one of her pillows, one of the middle, for show pillows and hugged it to her chest. "Okay," she repeated.

And so she told them everything.

They had both been aware of the fact that there was a guy, they had both known there was drama going on with him, but just like her, they would never have guessed how deep things ran with Jace.

Kaelie huddled up close to Clary on the mattress and looped her arm around her shoulder and settled the other one over her legs, just below where the pillow was propped up, while Simon remained standing. Or at least, he remained standing for the first couple of minutes, and then he got pissed off and started pacing around the room. From her bed, to the window, then over to the door that lead to her ensuite, then back to the bed and started it all over again. He was tapping his fingers against his thigh and then against the window frame and making annoyed clicking sounds with his teeth, but the girls didn't address it, Clary just talking and going through every single then that had happened to her and that she had found out.

"Right," Kaelie breathed out heavily. "Well, fuck," she let out a strangled-sounding laugh. "That really explains why you've been so...Not yourself recently."

"Yeah," Clary muttered, picking at the fringe of the pillow.

"I'm sorry I didn't ask about it sooner," Kaelie nudged at the redhead with her shoulder. "I knew there was a guy and everything, which I thought was cool, because you deserved a guy to take your attention off all the shit with Jordan. But I didn't think...I thought that maybe you were just off because of Jordan and Lydia. You said that you were over it but then you got into that fight with her, and I just thought..." she shrugged again, wrinkling her nose and obviously feeling bad. "I didn't think it was anything else, and I'm sorry."

"No," Clary shook her head, giving Kaelie's hand that was resting on her shoulder a squeeze. "No, don't feel bad. I didn't want to talk about it, and if you asked me, I wouldn't have told you."

"And you were happy too!" Kaelie pointed out. "You know, you were happy, obviously when things were good with you and you were getting to know him and everything...And it's just been the past couple of weeks that you've been, I don't know, off..."

"Yeah," Clary hummed out. They fell quiet, as Kaelie let her hand drift from Clary's shoulder and down to her back, rubbing at it comfortingly. Kaelie's movements became jerky after a few moments though as things seemed to settle in, and she let out an angry huff through her teeth.

"You have to go to the police!" She exclaimed. Clary's eyes widened as she looked at the blonde.

"Wh—" her head jerked. "The police? And tell them what? Turn in my dad and my brother? I can't do that, you know I can't!" Kaelie twisted her lips together and there was a pained expression on her face, and Clary could understand that because whatever Kaelie was thinking, she had already thought it ten times over. Going to the police would be the right thing to do, but how was she meant to go to them and tell them that her father and her brother were the ones responsible for putting someone in prison? And—it wasn't even as if it was his fault entirely, because Jace's friends—or brothers, as he called them—were doing things wrong, which is why they had ended up that situation in the first place.

A few more minutes passed and it was only then that Clary realized how dark the room was now, since she had taken her time to make sure she was telling them everything, going into detail that she would probably be embarrassed about later, and none of them had turned on any lights. Clary pulled away from Kaelie to reach for the lamp on the bedside table and flicked it on.

It was then that she noticed Simon, who had been standing by her windows for a long time, leaning against the window frame with his lips pursed.

"Si?" Clary lifted her voice to carry over to him as she rested back in her spot on the bed, Kaelie's arms going back around her. Simon didn't say anything for a while, and when he looked up, his face was furious.

"You told me you trusted him—and I could see on your face that you did," Simon's voice was filled with barely controlled anger. "He gained your trust purely to fuck you over." Clary gritted her teeth together and she hated the way her nose began to itch and the skin of her cheeks began to prickle in the way they always did before she cried. She rubbed her hand over her nose, hoping to get rid of the urge that was building behind her eyes. "And now he's trying to come out and tell you everything and act as though you should forgive him?!" Clary swallowed hard.

"I mean...I don't think he expects me to just forgive him..." she mumbled.

"Don't defend him," Simon snapped as he clenched his hands at his sides. Clary sucked her lower lip into her mouth. A few weeks ago, she would have snapped back at him, given him an indignant look because people didn't talk to her that way, even her best friends. But now, she just kept quiet, looking down at the pyjama shorts that she was wearing and tugging at the hem absentmindedly.

"Simon," Kaelie spoke up quietly, and Clary was still looking down, so she didn't see the look they exchanged, clearly communicating without words, even though the pair of them really didn't get on. But even so, they both loved Clary, and it was obvious from the look on Kaelie's face, she was trying to get him to push down some of his anger, because that really wasn't helping things right now. Simon gritted his teeth again, forcing the anger down and then walking over to the bed slowly. He sat down on Clary's other side and wrapped his arms around her, and Kaelie locked her arms around his, so that Clary was in a little circle of arms and warmth.

They all fell asleep together in the bed, Clary in the middle, Simon on one side and Kaelie on the other, RuPauls streaming on the TV opposite them. Clary felt warm and safe and cared for when she fell asleep, but she still woke up in the middle of the night and felt a tugging in the pit of her stomach.

There was a glow from the TV, lighting the room in a bluish-green glow, and she stared up at the ceiling, taking in a few breaths and trying to settle herself back down, telling herself to go back to sleep. She rolled to her side, so that she was facing Kaelie, and she was surprised that her friend was awake, facing back at her, eyes gentle and lips in a small smile.

"You okay?" Kaelie whispered so as not to wake Simon.

"Yeah," Clary whispered back, even though they both knew she was lying.

"Did you really like him?" Kaelie asked after a few minutes. Clary swallowed hard.

"He was just some guy," she murmured.

"Doesn't seem like just some guy," Kaelie returned. Clary shuffled around and then her nose was itching and this time she couldn't stop the tears from rolling across her face, over her nose and toward the pillow underneath her. Kaelie moved forward, looping an arm around Clary's waist and pressing her forehead against the redheads.

"I just...I really liked him," Clary hiccuped. "And I liked his f-friends. And I liked being at the tattoo parlor. And n-now it's gone." Kaelie didn't say anything, she just held Clary until she fell asleep.